One of my Cub fan friends who I thought was at least semi-knowledgeable about baseball told me that the corked bat incident is the only thing keeping Sammy out of the hall of fame. My response was "you can't be serious?" yet he was totally serious. He doesn't believe Sosa juiced because there hasn't been any "real evidence" that he did. I sat there completely stunned. It makes me wonder how many other Cub fans might be in denial about Sosa's juicing? And yes, some of the dumbest fans around indeed.

Cub fans have an understandably complex relationship with Sammy. On the one hand, his HR chase with Mark McGwire in 1998 is one of the key pieces of their elevation into baseball's royalty. I don't recall the Cubs being such a national novelty even in the '90s, until the Sosa/McGwire saga. They were growing, of course, thanks to the Tribune Marketing Machine, but Sosa really put them over the top.

On the other hand, he was a ****ing cheater.

I can't say I blame some of them for their denial. Imagine how we'd have felt if Big Frank or Robin Ventura was so blatantly on steroids. That said, even the most blue-bleeding Cub fans I know at least now can admit that Sosa was clearly juicing.